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“Come, and let us return to Yahweh; for he has torn us to pieces, and he will heal us; he has injured us, and he will bind up our wounds.
Hosea 6:1 · World English Bible
Parallel translations
  • KJV Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.
  • BSB Come, let us return to the LORD. For He has torn us to pieces, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bind up our wounds.
  • NKJV Come,and let us return to the Lord; For He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up.
  • NASB “Come, let’s return to the Lord. For He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us.
  • NLT “Come, let us return to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces; now he will heal us. He has injured us; now he will bandage our wounds.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

The people call one another to return to the LORD, confident that the God who wounded them will also heal and restore.

Overview

These verses voice a summons to repentance, recognizing that the same God who tore them in judgment will bind up their wounds. While some read this as sincere and others as a shallow, presumptuous confidence (given God's rebuke in v.4), the theology is sound: the LORD heals those who return to Him. The hope of healing through the One who struck looks ahead to Christ, by whose wounds we are healed.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 21

  • Job 5:18For he wounds, and binds up. He injures, and his hands make whole.
  • Deut 32:39“See now that I myself am he. There is no god with me. I kill and I make alive. I wound and I heal. There is no one who can deliver out of my hand.
  • 1 Sam 2:6“Yahweh kills, and makes alive. He brings down to Sheol, and brings up.
  • Lam 3:40–41Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Yahweh.
  • Hos 14:4“I will heal their waywardness. I will love them freely; for my anger is turned away from him.
  • Isa 55:7Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to Yahweh, and he will have mercy on him; and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
  • Job 34:29When he gives quietness, who then can condemn? When he hides his face, who then can see him? Alike whether to a nation, or to a man,
  • Isa 2:3Many peoples shall go and say, “Come, let’s go up to the mountain of Yahweh, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” For out of Zion the law shall go out, and Yahweh’s word from Jerusalem.
  • Jer 30:17For I will restore health to you, and I will heal you of your wounds,” says Yahweh; “because they have called you an outcast, saying, ‘It is Zion, whom no man seeks after.’”
  • Hos 14:1Israel, return to Yahweh your God; for you have fallen because of your sin.
  • Hos 13:7–9Therefore I am like a lion to them. Like a leopard, I will lurk by the path.
  • Lam 3:32–33For though he cause grief, yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.
  • Jer 50:4“In those days, and in that time,” says Yahweh, “the children of Israel will come, they and the children of Judah together; they will go on their way weeping, and will seek Yahweh their God.
  • Isa 30:26Moreover the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days, in the day that Yahweh binds up the fracture of his people, and heals the wound they were struck with.
  • Jer 3:22Return, you backsliding children, and I will heal your backsliding. “Behold, we have come to you; for you are Yahweh our God.
  • Hos 5:12–15Therefore I am to Ephraim like a moth, and to the house of Judah like rottenness.
  • Ps 30:7You, Yahweh, when you favored me, made my mountain stand strong; but when you hid your face, I was troubled.
  • Jer 33:5while men come to fight with the Chaldeans, and to fill them with the dead bodies of men, whom I have killed in my anger and in my wrath, and for all whose wickedness I have hidden my face from this city:
  • Jer 30:12For Yahweh says, “Your hurt is incurable, and your wound grievous.
  • Isa 30:22You shall defile the overlaying of your engraved images of silver, and the plating of your molten images of gold. You shall cast them away as an unclean thing. You shall tell it, “Go away!”
  • Zeph 2:1Gather yourselves together, yes, gather together, you nation that has no shame,

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Hosea videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Hosea 6:1YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on HoseaMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

God's relentless love for an unfaithful bride dramatizes the gospel: 'Out of Egypt I called my son' is fulfilled in Jesus, who redeems an adulterous people at his own cost.

How Hosea 6:1 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.